A Founders Letter
by Omegakishan
Summary: A letter from a founder's son to his heir, revealing the truth about what happened all those years ago. Ties in with the Phoenix Cycle.


Welcome, my Heir to this story of your legacy, a tale of love, ambition, friendship and betrayal.

When my father was very young it was discovered that he possessed magic. His parents, who did not have any magic, loved him regardless and raised him, keeping his abilities a secret. When my father was sixteen, they were discovered. My father managed to escape with his life, my grandparents weren't as lucky, they were hanged 'For harbouring an advocate of the devil'. My father became a wanderer, sunk in depression, blaming himself and his abilities for his parents death. In was in this state that he was found, contemplating suicide, by the man who would one day be my godfather. My godfather was a wizard as well, and when he found out what had happened, he invited him to stay at his home. At dinner that night, Uncle Rick, as I would one day call him, told my father of a vision. A wondrous idea. A place, hidden from the muggle world, where young witches and wizards could study magic safely, without persecution. A school of magic. At first my father dismissed it as a dream, a farfetched idea that would never come to fruition. My father and godfather, now friends set out to travel, Uncle Rick in search of others who would follow his dream, my father, just barely out of his depression, in search of new purpose in life. They met with two others who agreed to help follow the dream. My father, now given time to contemplate the idea, agreed to become a part of the dream. In a few years a castle had been built, a place designed to be a home and sanctuary for students. A village was built near the castle, designed as a home for the families of students. Soon students began to arrive, and my father, uncle and aunts all found love and married. My father and his wife had a son, Viktor, and my father secretly began plans for a second school. His intentions behind the school were simple. It would serve as a way of introducing muggleborns to the magical world, so they would not be blindsided, as he had been.

But all was not well. When his wife found out about the second school, she flew into a rage. She disliked the idea of muggleborns attending the school, and Viktor had been raised to be the same. As a result, she was cast from the family, and Viktor chose to go with her. My father was upset; he had never expected his wife to betray him. After a long time, my father finally found love again. He had just returned from a trip to find a suitable location for the second school, the betrayal only spurring him on faster toward his goal, and his haste to return to his study caused him to collide with the muggle studies professor, who had been appointed in his absence. My father fell in love with her, and soon, she had fallen in love with him. They were married, and, a year later, I was born, and near that time, so were my honorary brothers and sister, my uncle and aunt's

Seventeen years later, when the time of my graduation neared, there was again, unrest in the world. My father's first wife returned, Viktor at her side, at the head of a huge army of dark creatures. She wished to destroy the nearly complete school my father had spent many long years building, keeping it a secret from everyone except my mother. War loomed over us, my father and the other founders began training the students to defend themselves, and some of the students volunteered to fight. The founders organised these students into four groups, using, at Uncle Rick's insistence, a charmed hat to sort them according to their greatest personality traits. The hat sorted students with great bravery and fighting ability into the group trained by Uncle Rick, students with great intelligence into the group trained by Aunt Row, students who were hard working and had great loyalty into the group trained by Aunt Hel, and students with cunning and ambition into the group trained by my father. In group training sessions, students would be put into groups of four, one from each house, and trained to work as a team.

War finally came, and Hogwarts was as prepared as possible, but it wasn't enough. In desperation, my father hatched a basilisk, using magic to age it to a large size, and was granted the ability to talk with it as a result. The basilisk protected the school, defending the students in the few times they were vulnerable. Six months after the basilisk was hatched, the founders were killed, and my father's ability to speak to the basilisk passed on to me. In desperation, I and the other four heirs bound a contract with the four elemental spirits. We and those of our heirs who were deemed worthy would gain tremendous power in the elements. There were five conditions. The first two seemed inconsequential, according to the contract, James, Uncle Rick's son (who gained power over fire), and his line would only ever fall in love with redheads. Arthur, Aunt Hel's son (who gained power over earth), and all his descendants would have red hair. Together there was an implication that the lines would merge, but no indication of when. The second two were worse; until the time came that our heirs needed these abilities, all descendants of Helena, Aunt Rows daughter (who gained power over air) would be squibs and my father and his heirs (who gained power over water) would be deemed as evil, everything they worked for warped into appearing as the opposite. This is the reason I have written the letter, to reveal the truth about my father. The final condition was that our heirs who were deemed worthy would have their animagus forms fixed to an extent, only changeable by external magic. But there was one more thing, we were each granted a secondary ability. Helena gained what we called Mage Senses, Arthur gained a portion of control over time magic, which he never completed training in. I gained wild magic, enabling me greater power at the cost of control. We never discovered what James's power was, but we were assured that it would surface in his heir.

With these new powers we fought back, and finally won the war, defeating and imprisoning my father's former wife. Viktor fled, vowing that his line would one day carry through with his mother's work, that one day his would destroy that of the founders.

If you are reading this, the time has come when my half-brother's heir has risen, threatening to destroy the world. Your duty my heir, is to seek out the other three heirs, and when you do, the four of you must unlock your elemental power, together you must train yourselves in every extent of it, preparing yourselves for the battle against the disgraced heir. You must unlock the four vaults belonging to the founders, indeed; if you have this letter you have unlocked your own already, and use the contents to train yourselves in magic. You must each find a secondary, someone to take on your abilities in the event of your death, to ensure that these abilities aren't must hasten to do these things, as every second wasted is an innocent life lost in battle.

Godspeed, my heir

Alexander Slytherin


End file.
